Halo: First Contact Harvest
by DOA-Walker
Summary: This is about Sergeant Major Michael Benoy and his fight to save Harvest and contact UNSC forces.


This follows Sergeant Major Michael Benoy, and his fight to save harvest.

I tried to get this to line up with the Halo story line but a few things are off.

I was in a D77-TC Pelican on my way to deployment base Bravo coming back from a tour of duty on some other god forsaken colony planet fighting against rebel bastards. Bravo base was the final stop for soldiers returning home from combat to their homes on Harvest, also home to a Militia training facility. I was being brought back because our battalion took too many casualties and had to dissolve and thought we had enough of fighting, most of our KIA's came in the same week, some secret operation that O.N.I didn't even care enough about to give a name (Operation: MATCHMAKER). It was a combined Army and Marines operation, mostly Army though. You hear about the glorious death of a soldier that won't be forgotten, but the thousands of soldiers that died there won't be mourned or remembered for their selfless deeds of heroism. I got a medal out of this operation, the Red Legion of Honor for running through dozens of rebel soldiers and planting a bomb destroying their artillery emplacement saving 2 platoons that were surrounded, also caught a bullet and there only surviving officer, a lieutenant wrote me up for both that medal and a purple heart. Oh yeah, later on I learned that both of those platoons were slaughtered in another engagement, no survivors.

The other guys and I all lived in Harvest and came from various battles, a few even still had head bandages, you should've seen the ship I was on, a football field sized room just filled with body bags, and this was just Harvest, the men and women who had participated in the battle was from various planets. And what happened to my exact platoon, most perished in an ambush, and they tried to give me a medal for repelling the attack. I took it from the Brigadier General, and through it on the ground, and walked away. By this point in the ride we were about 20 miles away from Bravo base, the Pelican started to shake as I felt it turning sharply, taking evasive maneuvers. I got up and walked to the cockpit door, it was unlocked, odd. I walked in and asked the pilots "What are you doing? There's wounded soldiers on board!" I got an immediate frightened/impatient reply, "We got an unknown hostile object following us, I think it's shooting bolts of energy at us." - "Bolts of energy? Are you nuts?" - "Look out the damn window and see for yourself."

I looked out the window, he wasn't lying, a purple what looks like a tadpole about the size of a longsword bomber was trailing us, not only 1, but a squadron of it. "Get on the radio pilots." - "Well gee, I wish I would've thought of that! The radio is fucked along with most our navigation. Not everything is out so it can't be an EMP they hit us with." The craft shook violently for a few seconds, and started to the left. "Left engine is out! Right one isn't going to last for very mu-" The craft shook violently again, "Jesus we're going down fast and hard, brace for impact!" Not long after that, the pelican crashed into a heavily wooded area. I gained cautiousness about 20 minutes after the crash, if I hadn't still been in my combat gear, I'd probably been dead. I checked around, only 3 of the others survived, the other 18 including the pilots and all of the wounded died on impact.

I opened the weapons locker in the cockpit on the Pelican and found only Assault weapons and Magnums. I distributed them accordingly to the survivors, I said "Okay, we need to get the radio working if that fails we should try and make it to Bravo base." Then a younger looking private said "Wait a second, who made you leader?" I pointed to my shoulder at the rank. "You see that, private; I'm a sergeant, and the highest ranking. That makes me the leader." The private just sighs and rolls his eyes, accepting it, kind of. I walked back into the cockpit of the pelican, I began working on the radio with the help of a corporal, and she knew more about repairing electronics than I do since she studied electricity in high school and college. We got the radio working within about 10 minutes. "That was way faster than I thought it was going to take." I said, she replied "Yeah, wasn't damaged much, it was the power supply that was effecting it, why don't you give it a try?" I looked behind her, there was something standing there, I yelled "Get down!" as she ducked I shot my magnum (pistol) and hit it in the head, it fell to the ground. I walked over to the alien looking thing, It was short, about 3 feet tall, kind of hard, had armor on it along with what looks like a gas mask.

I ran back to the soldiers, they started walking towards me, surprised. "What the fuck do you think you're doing? You should be standing guard and watching for them, thanks to you we almost got killed by one of those things." - "Sorry sir, it won't happen again." - "I just hope so, private. He's probably a scout, others will notice when he doesn't come back, so stay alert." - "Yes, sir!" I started to walk over to the female corporal again, putting a round between the alien's eyes as I walked. "Hey, I didn't catch your name." She took off her helmet to reveal her blonde hair. "Kelly Karina" - "Mine is Michael Benoy, well I better radio for assistance." I got to the radio and turned it on, then talked into it "Mayday mayday, this is pelican CC-137 on route to Bravo base, Bravo base do you read?" - "This is Bravo base, we acknowledged you CC-137." Just as I was about to answered him back, a private came to me and said "Sir, more of them are arriving, there's a couple big ones it looks, might be a different species." - "Defensive formations, don't fire unless fired upon." - "Sir, yes sir!"

Turned my attention back to the radio "Bravo base, we have been shot down by unidentified hostile forces. Technology well above our own,, either there firing an odd kind of tracer round or it's advanced energy weapons." - "Wait, you've made contact with aliens you said?" - "Affirmative, and they're not looking for a friendship. Troops in contact!" - "We'll try and get help to you, just stay alive." - "You don't have to tell me twice, large numbers of them approaching we're not engaging, we're on the move." I placed a C4 charge on the radio (it would blow up the whole cockpit) "Okay everyone, were moving out, make a run for it, we got a long way to go, oh and the cockpit is going to blow in about 6 minutes." We all started running without looking back, 6 minutes later we heard an explosion in the distance. We only ran about 30 minutes before we saw a few Falcon helicopters flying towards the Pelican crash site. I threw a blue smoke grenade in a small clearing, the Falcons spotted it and flew towards us, 1 landed and the other 2 circled.

We all got onto the Falcon, I asked "Hey gunner, any news? Is this a planetary thing? If it is, when is help coming?" - "Sergeant, there is an enemy fleet in orbit that wasn't detected until it engaged our defenses and destroyed them. And yes it is a planetary event, it just started with your event, and no, help isn't coming. They attacked our communication relay, as far as the UNSC knows is that we are just fine." The helicopter landed at Bravo base and noticed there were troops mobilizing everywhere. I went to the mess hall, and I ate, then I went to the guest barracks, nobody would be visiting when the world is being invaded I thought. I woke up the next day; Corporal Kelly was in a bed across the room, about 5 feet away. She must have followed me as I'm the only one she has talked to probably. I got dressed all the way, just not my combat gear, that was left on the floor, "Kelly, wake up." She slowly opened her eyes, man did she look hot, I thought to myself. "I'm going to the mess hall for a while, I'll wait outside while you get dressed" - "No, it's alright, I wore most of my clothing when I went to bed in case I needed to get up and leave fast." Kelly stood up, she had typical issued UNSC shirt and shorts, thin and tight fighting. (This was only the bottom layer, usually there's something that goes over that and then the body armor) If I thought she was hot before, she was ridiculously hot now...What she is wearing probably would be a walk around the room kind of clothes, not decent enough to go outside in, but not as revealing as it sounds.

Kelly got dressed with more decent clothing and we left to go to the mess hall, once we opened the doors, I stopped and looked around the room, there was only a few people here and there. We sat down at a table once we got our food, steak, eggs, toast, sausages, and milk. "Man, they have the good stuff today; usually they would have crappy food." Kelly said. "Well it probably is because it's a hard day of fighting; many people will die today, so they thought you at least deserve a nice breakfast." - "Oh, well that's... Nice of them..." We finished our breakfast and headed back to where we slept, opened the door, and put on our combat armor; there weren't as many troops around now as there was yesterday. Kelly and I walked to the command building, I saw a couple soldiers holding a stretcher with a wounded soldier, missing leg and blood dripping on the ground. Kelly looked away from him and avoided the blood on the ground. "Welcome to war Kelly, I thought we came from the same battle." She replied; "I-I've never been this close to a wounded soldier." – "Really? How? I've been so close to the enemy.. I've had hand to hand combat with them. Hell once as I was holding my friend in my arms as he was dying, a rebel charged in and shot a burst of rounds into him, leaving me covered with the blood of a close friend, I jumped forward and tackled the fucker snapping his neck." - "Uh, brutal, I was a sniper, engaging the enemy from long distances." - "Yeah, I figured that."

We walked into the command building; it was busy with activity, battle nets and tactical displays everywhere. I walked up to a random officer and asked "Hey, anywhere I could help out at." - "Yes, we are trying to round up men, mostly veterans to assault the com relay; it's our only hope to get help soon." - "Sir, I volunteer for the mission, I am a veteran, I received the Red Legion of Honor in the last ONI operations, sir!" - "Well a decorated soldier, you know this is a near suicidal mission, right?" - "Sir, it's what a soldier does, if it comes down to it, I will die so others may live." The officer took a second to think of that, "That it is, a Pelican will be ready with a squad soon, and you'll be in charge because of your combat experience." - "Thanks sir, is she coming along also?" - "Why not, can use all the help you can get, we got army squads that tried for it and just got halted and pinned down, so while there getting all the enemies attention, by the way they have a name, the Covenant, we will send you guys in there. Here is the mission briefing" He handed me a data-pad with all the briefing. "Thank you sir, failure isn't an option." I walked to the armory, grabbed an MA5B Assault Rifle, and a M90 Close Assault Weapon (shotgun), and grabbed as much ammo as I can hold. Kelly picked up a {99 Anti-Matériel Sniper Rifle} and a M6C Magnum (pistol).

Awaiting us at the pelican was a squad of marines, telling by their patches; they are from the 1st Marine Division, same as me. Best of the best apart from ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper). "Alright squad load up, we got a job to do." Everyone boarded the Pelican and the Pelican started towards the objective. There was purple what we told was "plasma technology" well above our own. Twenty minutes pass until an enemy fighter (Banshee), different than the one I saw yesterday, came up behind us, it fired a green missile looking thing, only more like when you throw a bucket of water at high speeds but sticks together better, the pelican evaded. I picked up a M19 SSM Rocket Launcher and fired at the enemy; direct hit! It blew up and sent debris flying everywhere, the Pelican is already long out of range of the range of debris.

The Pelican drop ship hovered just above the ground (the terrain was like grassy hills). Everyone including Kelly and I got out onto a small hill, within sight of the communication relay. Kelly looked through her scope at the relay. "Sergeant Benoy, I see several enemies, both big and small." - "Take 'em out, go for the big ones first. The small ones are probably cannon fodder" Heard the boom of the rifle echo for what sounds like miles. "All targets eliminated, about 10 of the little grunt guys left." - "Excellent work Kelly, stay back and cover us until we clear them. Marines move out!" I took the lead, with the rest of the marines following, we killed all the grunt guys and found one of the big guys was still alive an Elite. (Elite, very intelligent. Other big type=Brute, very hairy, very strong, low intelligence) I pulled out my combat knife and stabbed him in the head and pulled it back out. Wiped the blood off on my uniform, it was purple. "Okay men, that was too easy." They just simply did there own thing, collecting their weapons for examination by ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) I signaled Kelly to move up, once she got close to us, I opened the door using a pass-code in the mission briefing, it was still light. I saw a human body here and there.

The squad started moving down the hallway and moved into what looked like a battle happened. There was burn and blast marks and bullet casings everywhere. The hallway came to an end with options to either go left or right, as I approached it, from around the right corner several grunts came out and shot the whole hallway with pink needle like crystals, the Marines shot and killed him, but not before I had been hit. I fell onto the floor with a pink thing sticking out the side of me, I pulled it out with an unbelievable amount of pain. "Sir, we have a KIA, private Aldert Donnell." - "Leave him here for now, we'll come back for him." I ripped off one of his dog tags and started limping towards the hallway, collecting the grunts weapons. Finally we came across the communication room, I opened the door, the room had multiple dead civilians in it.

Out of nowhere a floating thing, squid like thing; purple and pink colors, just like everything else is. It wasn't armed, I thought it could be maybe an engineer or a leader of some sort. The alien then changed to a little more aggressive doing something with like an animal would do. Then from a few feet behind me, Kelly shot it with her Sniper Rifle. It hit the ground and exploded, a tiny explosion, just enough to cause damage if directly hit someone. "Really? A sniper shot when your like 5 feet away!" - "Sorry, needed to react fast." - "Fine, just don't do it again, that is too loud for indoors" I walked to the control panel. "Um, Kelly. You're good with this kind of stuff, right?" - "Fine, I'll take a look 5 minutes pass Okay it's looking good, all you got to do now is talk into it." - "Okay, thank you." I typed in the pass-code once again and said "Priority Transmission! Harvest colony reporting Emergency Code: BANDERSNATCH. We are requesting immediate assistance!" - "This is the CMA Heracles, we acknowledge, what is the situation?" - "We are under attack by... A highly advanced enemy force, definitely not of human origin. First contact of an alien race confirmed, extremely hostile." A silence fills the air for a long moment. "This is Captain Maribeau Veredi, don't worry. Help is on the way! What is your name?" - "First Sergeant Michael Benoy, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, A Company, well what's left of 3rd Battalion after the last ONI operations." - "Okay soldier, wheres the personnel authorized with working the communication" - "Sir, slaughtered in a surprise attack probably yesterday morning when it all started. They take no prisoners." - "Oh I see, just try and hold out, a battle group will arrive in 12 hours."

The door slid open, and out came an Elite wielding an energy sword, this one has different armor than any of the previous ones, just looked allot more decorated, probably higher ranked. The Elite charged me and drove the sword through my abdomen, I stuck my combat knife in his eye, we both fell to the ground, with the energy sword still stuck in me. One of the Marines pulled it out and it shut off so it was only a metal grip part. The Corpsman ran over to me, he didn't know what to do, there was no blood as it is pure energy that burns, he got out a can of biofoam. "Save it, you know as good as I do, biofoam is only good for numbing and holding shit into place. I'm not gonna make it any way." - "You have to try." - "No, I don't." I said while looking out the window to see multiple enemy drop ships. "Let me at least die knowing I did something good. There is allot of drop ships out there, I'll hold them off while all of you escape. Live to fight another day, that's an order!" I didn't realize the transmission with Captain Maribeau Veredi was still online until he broke my thoughts "Sergeant Benoy, that's a very heroic deed you're about to do, you won't be forgotten." - "Admiral, it's what a soldier does, sir, we fight, we die. All in the line of duty." Just as I spit out those words, the complex shakes, we are being bombarded, the transmission is offline. "I want all of you to jump out of this window, and make a run for it, I will activate the fail-safe on the relay." I ripped off my dog-tag. "Kelly, keep 'em, it's a one way trip."

Minutes pass, I looked through a set of binoculars, they were out of the blast zone. I typed in the confirmation code on the fail safe, just as a group of high ranking Elites came busted through the door. "See you in hell!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. The communication outpost blew up in a massive explosion, Leaving only scattered remains of debris.

**Epilogue**

The Marines eventually found a UNSC patrol and fought until Captain Maribeau Veredi arrived with Battle Group 4. They were defeated by a loan Covenant ship in an engagement lasting 14 seconds, and returned with the largest UNSC fleet ever assembled at the time. Over 40 ships lead by Vice Admiral Preston Cole, he defeated the alien ship with the loss of 14 of his own. The Covenant later sent another fleet, and was defeated again. The ground campaign took another 5 (2526-2531) years of bloody and costly combat to retake. But by this time, Harvest has lost it's strategic value as the Covenant began pushing their way further into the Inner Colonies eventually finding Reach. Reach was a major human military planet, even regarded as "A fortress among the stars." It fell in just a few months, probably resulting in 100 - 250 million military casualties. Kelly went on to fight on Reach as well as other colonies, including Earth, she returned to Harvest years after the end of the war and lived a fairly good life, she still remembers Sergeant Benoy's sacrifice to this day.

Vice Admiral Preston Cole was a war hero priory to the Human-Covenant war, against the rebel forces. He was also very popular, but was assumed dead in the battle of Psi Serpentis. His fleet took out almost 100 enemy ships with minor losses on his side, almost unthinkable to have happened. As another Covenant fleet approached numbering 200, he ordered his fleet to withdraw, except for his flagship. The Admiral then issued a broadcast to the pursuing Covenant ships, boasting of his own achievements while scoffing at their claim to righteousness. Sensing and accepting the challenge, the Covenant moved to attack Everest, but their plasma was deflected by the magnetosphere of the planet. Cole then launched 100 Shiva nuclear warheads into Viperidae's unstable core. The resulting fission event caused the planet to briefly go supernova and become a brown dwarf. The shock wave obliterated all of the Covenant ships, reduced Viperidae to a smoldering rock, and presumably destroyed Everest. A day of mourning was proclaimed July 28, 2543 as humanity grieved for the loss of arguably its greatest hero.

The Covenant later found Earth, and was surprised to find a major human presence that matched that of Reach. After a lengthy fight for Earth, the Covenant was defeated and was plunged into Civil War. Over half of the Human population exterminated. Many planets abandoned, rendered lifeless and/or uninhabitable. The war lasted from February 3, 2525 to December 2552 or March 3 2553 (official end of hostilities) An estimated 23 billion humans were killed, out of the original 39 billion before the war. There exists a truce between the Covenant Separatists and Humanity.


End file.
